


Of All The Gin Joints

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Get Together, M/M, party planner Remus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 02:26:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5850313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Week Four: A story about three siblings.</p><p>Remus is planning a party for Bellatrix Black. He has to walk through the land mines of the three Black sisters along with approving the whole Black clan. Oh and he also gets hit on by Sirius who is smitten at first sight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of All The Gin Joints

**Author's Note:**

> Now, I’m not sure if this story is cheating at the story of three siblings. I was going to make it about Sirius with his relationships with James and Regulus but this sort of happened instead.
> 
> This is week four in the _[52 Week Writing Challenge](http://ourwritingtherapy.tumblr.com/post/135439311691/52-short-stories-in-52-weeks)_ . If you have any story ideas you'd like to see go along with any of these prompts let me know.

“Fire, I want fire! Flames everywhere.”  
  
“Fucking hell, Bella. You’re a bloody pyro.”  
  
“Andi, your language…”  
  
“Oh my god, unclench, Cissy.”  
  
“Mummy should have tossed you from the family when she threatened after you started dating that working class husband of yours.”  
  
“Fuck you Bella! At least I’m not screwing a cousin!”  
  
“At least I didn’t get knocked up at eighteen, Andromeda!”  
  
Remus sat, just watching the three sisters in front of him as they went at it. He wondered if he should step in before someone lost an eye or something, but he really didn’t want to get involved in sibling rivalry. If someone actually threw a punch, he’d probably have to step in then. Only because he didn’t feel like having to clean blood off of his carpet. He wondered, seeing they were all in their thirties, if they were being a bit immature.  
  
As a high-end party planner, he had experienced a lot of different crazy. The Bridezilla, who asked for an itemized list of everything he did for her daily. Or that time the seventy year old codger, who married a twenty-three year old bottle blonde. The old bastard wanted eight white bengal tigers to line the aisle as he sweet walked down. Or the housewife who always used him to plan her various charity events, even though each time she would scream at him about how shite a job he did or how over priced he was.  
  
But he took it all in stride because he loved the whole process of planning. He loved it even more when he got to see how everything came together at the end of it all. Ninety-nine percent of the time, he got rave reviews of his wonderful skills. All of his parties were hits. It all started when he planned a wedding for his mum’s boss. He and his friend Lily, sort of just fell into it out of uni and it worked. Their business spread by word of mouth because his mum’s boss thought they were so brilliant. She hired them again for a charity event, then her friends did the same.  
  
Remus was living fairly comfortably at the age of twenty-six. He had brilliant mates. A great job. A decent flat. He could feed himself well enough. But he was craving a relationship. He never had a very good history in his dating life but he still held out hope there was someone out there for him. It made him a little jealous with every wedding he did though, to see two people who did find one another.  
  
“Maybe we could discuss the budget instead.” Remus said, clearing his throat. He had enough of listening to the sisters threaten one another.  
  
They also stopped what they were doing and broke into laughter. “Mister Lupin, there’s no such thing a budget for a Black family function.” The white-blonde one, Narcissa/Cissy, said between giggles.  
  
“Ah, okay then. How about a location?”  
  
“Auntie Walburga’s offered her country estate for it.” Bellatrix, the birthday girl said.  
  
Remus always felt a little out of his depth with really posh people. And these people were apparently really posh. Well, he knew they were posh. The patriarch, Orion Black owned a very large and well known chain of hotels. They were basically the Hilton’s of the UK. If that wasn’t enough, he married an Asian hotel magnet’s daughter, Walburga Cài, from Taiwan. The women in his office were Orion’s sister’s were the offspring, who had married into old money.  
  
The family was always causing some type of huff in the paper. There was the one where Andromeda married young, mainly because she had been pregnant. Then there was one where Orion’s son Sirius Black had been seen in a gay club at sixteen and spent some time away from his family, they were apparently on better terms now. Then there was one time Bella had nearly set Buckingham Palace on fire when she was hooking up with some bloke.  
  
They were just a very interesting, very rich family. Remus knew he had to do well because if he fucked up this party then he would put his company’s reputation at risk.  
  
After the woman left, with finally giving Remus an idea for what to do — without committing sororicide —, he went over to Lily’s office across from his to have lunch with her and one of their assistants, Marlene.  
  
“Those Black sisters…” Marlene said with a laugh. “I don’t know how you handle them.”  
  
“I don’t either.” Remus snorted. “They’re bloody mad. I thought we were actually going to have a murder in the office today.”  
  
“At least they weren’t shouting at you.” Lily pointed out.  
  
“Very true.” Remus nodded. “I can’t believe we’re doing a Black event.”  
  
“We’re moving up in the world, aren’t we?” Lily asked with a raised eyebrow. “What’s the budget?”  
  
“Oh, they actually laughed at me when I asked.”  
  
“What?” Marlene asked before taking a bite of her sandwich.  
  
“Apparently they have none.”  
  
“Fuck, you need to do everything you’ve always wanted. The most elaborate tacky shite we can think of.” Lily suggested, eagerly.  
  
“It needs to be good, do you not want to have a job or something? They could ruin our careers, you know?”  
  
“We could do it tastefully. Use the best vendors. Best products. By best, I mean most expensive. We can go into stuff we only dream about with this lot.”  
  
“Bella’s bloody mad, I’m sure we can talk her into some of the most obnoxious shite. She says she wants fire, flames.”  
  
“Didn’t she almost burn down the bloody Palace?” Marlene looked shocked.  
  
“Yeah, her sister called her a pyro. I bet she’s set more shite on fire than we know.”  
  
“Well, let’s give her fire. Fire throwers. Those blokes that swallow fire or spit, whatever. Oh! We could do like some type of circus theme.”  
  
“Like a dark circus.”  
  
“She’s turning thirty-five, bit old for that, isn’t she?” Remus furrowed his brow.  
  
“Not if we make it adult-like.” Lily reached for a binder on her desk. “I’ve got some ideas.”  
  
From there they went on with the dark circus idea. He pitched it to the sisters and their mum and aunt. Remus was surprised that they all loved it. He thought the older women of the group would at least have something to say about it. Or even Andromeda, she seemed to be the most level-headed of the mad bunch. But no, he was going to the Black estate with his entire team to put on the most garish birthday party he ever thought to.  
  
It was so ridiculous, he had to go a full day early to start the set-up.

***

Sirius was sitting next to James, Reg, and Nymphadora in the back garden of his parent’s estate. He hated it there but Regulus and Andi had bribed him into joining for one reason or another, he couldn’t exactly remembered but he was sure he owed both of them something. He only needed to be around for two days, most of which he wouldn’t even have to deal with most of his family.  
  
“Your dad has the right idea of fucking off, you know, Dora?” Sirius huffed, sitting back on his hands. He watched Regulus attempt to up Dora again by doing a backhand spring.  
  
“Yes, if they all only hated us as much as they hate him for being black and working class.” The teenager snickered then burst out laughing when Regulus fell on his arse.  
  
“Reg, you break anything that could get us out of here?”  
  
“No, I think I’m fine.”  
  
“Pity.”  
  
“The real question is, why am I here?” James asked, ruffling his hair.  
  
“Because you’re my best mate and you love me.”  
  
“And you two don’t go anywhere without one another.” Regulus said, finally getting off the ground as Dora showed him how it was done. “Co-dependent bastards. Bloody, hell, Dora, how do you do that?”  
  
Sirius ignored his cousin and brother because he heard some commotion coming from the french doors leading into the garden. His aunt and Cissy were gesturing wildly at some red head and a very good looking bloke. “Oh, who’s that?” James asked.  
  
“He’s bloody lovely.” He said as the tall man made a face behind his aunt and cousin’s back and dragged a hand through his honey-brown curls.  
  
“Sod him, what about her?” James sighed.  
  
“Those are the event planners.” Dora informed them. “They were by ours the other day with some stuff for mum and aunt Cissy.”  
  
“She’s such a wealth of knowledge.” Regulus scoffed and threw his arm around his little cousin. “It looks like we’re losing some of the sane people in the place, Dora.”  
  
“Pretty faces come along and we’re nothing.”  
  
“Chopped liver.”  
  
“Bugger off, both of you!” Sirius waved his hand, watching three more people he didn’t notice scurry out of the house, carrying some boxes. The taller man was not pointing and instructing the four people that had come with him. His aunt and cousin were both walking back into the house, leaving the event planners to it.  
  
“We should go say hi.” James suggested.  
  
“And make arses out of yourselves?” Regulus laughed so loud it drew looks from the group of people in their garden.  
  
“We would not, we’re charming.”  
  
“That’s why you’re single?” Regulus raised an eyebrow.  
  
“We are single by choice.”  
  
“I need to say hi to him. Look at him in his little cardigan with bloody elbow patches. Ugh, I’m going to die.” Sirius pushed himself off the ground and James was right behind him.  
  
“Oh, this might be fun to watch.” Dora said, trailing after the two men.  
  
As they approached the five people all stopped talking. The swotty leader turned around to look over at Sirius. Sirius bit his lip when he saw the bloke’s eyes trail up and down his body. “Hiya! I’m Sirius, this is my mate James, and that’s my brother Regulus, and that’s our cousin Nymphadora.”  
  
“Sirius!” She shouted. “Tonks or Dora, please. My mum is barmy and gave me a name worse than the Black family tradition.” She huffed.  
  
“I’m Remus so I understand barmy names, it’s nice to meet you all. Sorry if we’re disturbing a quiet day.” He said, gesturing with the clipboard that he was holding.  
  
Sirius couldn’t help but appreciate Remus’ looks as they were now closer to him. He had a lovely large nose with freckles smattered across his pale skin and his eyes were a calming blue-green. “Oh, you weren’t interrupting a thing.” Sirius grinned.  
  
“You’re the event planners, we hear?”  
  
“Yeah, from the Moon and Stars Event Company.” The red head said. “I’m Lily, the co-owner with Remus here. This is Dorcas, Marlene, and Mary.” She pointed around at the others.  
  
“That’s a nice name for your company.”  
  
“We do love our stars in our family.” Reg scoffed.  
  
“Do you need help with anything?” James asked quickly.  
  
“Um, I don’t think that it’s on for you to be helping. We’re hired and all.” Remus shook his head. “But thanks for asking.”  
  
“If you need anything, just let us know. Please.” Sirius said with a wink, which made Remus give him a funny look.  
  
“I think we’ll be fine, but thank you.” Remus said curtly before turning back around to face his group.  
  
Regulus grabbed the back of both Sirius and James’ shirt and pulled them away, back to where they had been sitting earlier. “Bye!”  
  
“You’re the one that embarrassed us today.” Sirius grumbled as he sat back down on the grass, in perfect view of Remus. Sirius thought that Remus was such a brilliant name and it went very well with Sirius.  
  
“You two are ridiculous, can’t you just leave the people alone to do their jobs? It’s near harassment, you know?”  
  
“Stop looking them, it’s creepy.” Dora was speaking to the backs of Sirius and James’ heads.  
  
Sirius didn’t stop staring the entire time Remus was in the garden.

***

“Someone likes the looks of you. Well, the both of you.” Mary teased Remus and Lily as they stood in front of their cars before bringing in the rest of the supplies they wanted to have set up for the following day.  
  
“It’s probably a thing they do, hit on the help.” Lily scoffed. “Let’s finish up here and then go out for a pint, huh?”  
  
“Please, let’s.” Remus insisted.  
  
When they were about to leave Remus stopped by the sitting room to let Bella, Cissy, Walburga, and Durella know what they were going to do the following day. “So, the vendors will be here starting at ten. Lily, Dorcas and Marlene will be here then as well. Dorcas and I are going to be here closer to noon since we’ll be staying through the party.” Remus informed the women as he heard someone behind him.  
  
“I’ll be waiting eagerly for your return.” The deep voice said from behind him, obviously Sirius.  
  
It wasn’t that Remus didn’t think Sirius was fit. He obviously was with his long silky hair and narrow, grey eyes and sharp jaw. He had a wicked grin and pretty lips that looked lovely to kiss. But he was a Black. Remus didn’t fancy getting into that. He also didn’t think that Sirius would want more than a quick shag and he really didn’t have interest in that. He was never for one night stands and gathered relationships, which he had very few of.  
  
Sirius’ mother said something in Mandarin to her son. Remus was sure it was some sort of admonishing for trying to chat up the event planner because of the look on her face. Then again, he had yet to see the older women in the family smile so she could have been praising him for all Remus knew.  
  
“I’ll be off then. Have a lovely evening.” Remus said with a swift nod.  
  
When he turned around to leave, he nearly walked into Sirius who was grinning at him. “I’ll walk you out.”  
  
Remus protested but as he started to walk away, Sirius was right beside him. “Why are you trying to chat me up?” He raised an eyebrow once he figured they were out of ear shot of the rest of the Black’s.  
  
The other man threw his head back and barked a laugh. “Mate, have you seen yourself?”  
  
“Yes, I’m sort of all right, I guess?”  
  
“You’re fit. There’s also something else I like about you but I can’t figure it out. You’ve got a good… vibe. That sounds mad and I don’t normally say things like that but…” He trailed off with a shrug.  
  
Remus scoffed.  
  
“Are you not interested?”  
  
“Why? Just because you’re a Black and you’re fit.” Remus questioned when they got to the front door.  
  
“So, I’m fit?” Sirius waggled his eyebrows.  
  
“You know you are. That’s good enough reason for me not to want to date you. I also don’t fancy being tabloid fodder, either.” Remus said as he got outside, noticing Lily being chatted up by Sirius’ mate.  
  
Sirius frowned. “I’m not like the rest of them, you know?”  
  
“I don’t know.”  
  
“Then let me take you on a date.”  
  
Remus shook his head. “Sorry, I’m busy.”  
  
“I didn’t even ask you the day.” Sirius pouted as they walked towards his car.  
  
“Has anyone ever told you no, Sirius Black?”  
  
“Yes, constantly.” He said, dramatically rolling his head back and throwing his arms out.  
  
“I mean, dating wise.” Remus dug into his pockets for his keys.  
  
“Rarely, but I don’t date much because most people I fancy, seemed to think of me in the same way that you do.”  
  
Remus felt somewhat bad for that. He really didn’t know Sirius, just the rumors he heard in the press. But he still didn’t want to get involved in any type of mess. He was sure he had nothing in common with a rich playboy. “I need to get going.”  
  
“I’ll see you tomorrow?”  
  
“I’m sure you’ll make sure of it.” Remus snickered as James stepped away from Lily, looking flustered.  
  
Once in the car with Lily and Mary, they headed off to the pub to meet Marlene and Dorcas, who had already left. “You two really have no interest in either of them? They seem nice.”  
  
“I’m telling you, they just want to pull. They’re both full of money and arrogant. I can just tell it’s probably some game they play on unsuspecting workers.”  
  
“I don’t know, Lil, James seemed a little flustered around you. He tried to be suave but then it sort of backfired when you stood up to him.” Mary pointed out as Remus pulled away from the estate.

***

Sirius watched Remus for what had to be four hundredth time that night. This time he was talking to one of the sword swallowers as the man packed up. The party seemed to be a big hit with the entire Black clan and Bella’s terrible friends. Even Mummy was talking about what a wonderful job Remus had done with the event. She was planning on using the company for her next event. Sirius certainly didn’t have any problems with that because it meant he’d get another chance to try to chat Remus up. Not that he only cared about chatting him up. He actually did want to go on a proper date with the man. Remus just didn’t seem to think Sirius was being honest with him. He had no idea how to convince Remus that he was something he wasn’t.  
  
When the event planner was looking down at his clipboard and checking something off, Sirius decided to go over to him. He had kept his distance for most of the night. He had tried to talk to him a few times but Remus looked like he was busy for the most part. Sirius didn’t feel like being a prat like James, who spent his entire day trying to get Lily to go on a date with him. He was surprised that his best mate didn’t end up with a fist in his face.  
  
“Hi, there, Remus.”  
  
“Mister Black, how are you?” He spoke professionally, scribbling something down.  
  
“Please, don’t call me Mister Black. I’m not my father, thank god.” Sirius snorted and cringed a bit.  
  
Remus finally looked up from his clipboard with a sigh. “I know you’re trying to get me to go on a date with you again.”  
  
“I was just going to tell you that you did a great job and it wasn’t as horrible here as it normally is.”  
  
“I know I did.” Remus said with a slight smile.  
  
“What are you doing this coming week? You must be free one night.” Sirius figured that Remus was in a decent enough mood so he could ask him one more time.  
  
Remus let out a long breath. “I don’t know Sirius…”  
  
“I know you think I’m fit and I think you’re fit and I think you’re very creative and interesting. I’d like to get to know you better. I’m not like the rest of my family, I swear. I only have a relationship with them to make my brother and cousin happy. If it weren’t for Andi and Reggie and Dora I wouldn’t be here tonight. I only see them every so often. James and the Potters — they’re closer to me than most of my family.” Sirius felt like he couldn’t stop the words from coming out of his mouth. He just wanted to make Remus see that he wasn’t a typical Black.  
  
The event planner bit his lip. “I don’t know, Sirius.”  
  
Sirius frowned and looked down at his feet. “Right, okay. Ah… maybe I’ll see you around sometime.” He didn’t wait for Remus to say anything else. Sirius hated putting himself out there because when he had any interest in anyone, it normally ended up like that.  
  
On his way to his bike he bumped into Regulus. “Why are you looking so down?” Reg furrowed his brow. “What happened?”  
  
“Just got rejected again. I’m going to go home and wallow in my self pity.”  
  
“Something you’re good at.” His brother scoffed. “Why are you hung up on this one?”  
  
“I don’t know, I just, I have a good feeling.” He felt like an arse for saying that but he had no other way to describe the pull he had towards Remus.  
  
“You and your good feelings, huh? He could still come around, you never know…”  
  
Sirius had a lot of doubt in that but he would get over it because it wasn’t like he actually knew Remus. He just fancied him.

***

About a week later Remus had a free Saturday for once in his life. The rest of his team was handling the events they had on and Lily made him take the weekend off to rest. He wandered around the market in Camden when a record shop caught his eye. He had gone in it a few times before and they always had good deals.  
  
When he got into view of the counter he noticed Sirius Black standing behind it. “Of all the gin joints…” He mumbled to himself before wondering what Sirius was doing standing behind a counter at a record shop. Sirius hadn’t looked up, he was talking to some kid with a pink mohawk.  
  
Remus debated on leaving but he really wanted to look at the selection and also find out why a Black was doing such a menial job. Plus, he had actually been thinking about Sirius. He was rather fit and he did seem genuinely interested in Remus. But he was a Black, still. Remus didn’t want to hold someone’s family against them but he didn’t want his private life to be public.  
  
Even if he wanted to leave, it was too late because the pink haired person was leaving and Sirius was staring at Remus. Once the person walked by him, Remus awkwardly moved forward.  
  
“I know, you probably think I should be below this but this is my shop.”  
  
“Oh, really?”  
  
“Used to be my Uncle’s, who was tossed out of the Blacks for liking blokes.” Sirius explained. “He left it and his flat to me because they thought they were going to do the same to me. Which, they pretty much did. I don’t have any money from my parents, I made sure I was taken off the family registry and all that. I… I just can’t benefit from them. They’re terrible people, most of them.”  
  
Remus leaned his hands on the counter. “Sorry.”  
  
“It’s fine. We tolerate each other well enough.” Sirius said with a shrug.  
  
“I can’t believe this is your family’s place I’ve come in here a few times.”  
  
“Well, I only work here every so often. I just sort of manage but one of the girls is sick today so I stepped in.”  
  
“Oh, I see.” Remus nodded. “What do you do, normally?”  
  
“I work on my motorbike and I write.”  
  
“And what do you write?”  
  
“Nothing published yet but I’d like to. I need a killer pen name to stay out of the press. I might get interesting for them again. I’m rather boring, if you haven’t noticed, they stopped paying attention to me a few years ago.”  
  
Remus bit his lip in thought. He never really thought about of Sirius sort of dropped off the radar with only an occasional thing heard about him on social media or something. “Oh, I guess you’re right.”  
  
Sirius raised an eyebrow. “So, does that mean you’ll go on a date with me?”  
  
“I guess.” Remus said with a small smile.  
  
“Brilliant, Jamie’s going to be so angry that I got a date with you but he doesn’t get one with Lily.” Sirius chuckled. “So, I close at five. Are you free at five after?”  
  
Remus laughed and nodded. “Why not, yeah.”  
  
Sirius grinned and Remus had a funny feeling that he made the right decision.

**Author's Note:**

> I had terrible writers block in the middle of this. Sorry if it sucks.


End file.
